Seib & Wessel: What We’re Reading Friday

At a time when Syria’s possible use of chemical weapons against its internal foes has increased calls for the U.S. to get involved militarily in pushing out the Syrian regime, former Council on Foreign Relations president Les Gelb pleads the opposite case: “But the devil lures us into believing that the only way to help these Syrians is for the United States to take those first little military interventionary steps that would soon lead to bigger and bigger ones. This is not anti-war blue smoke; it’s precisely what we did in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.” [The Daily Beast]

The Forward’s Gal Beckerman gives President Barack Obama high marks for his speech in which he spoke directly to Israelis, going over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The president, he says, acknowledged Israeli fears in language American politicians rarely use but also appealed for empathy for ordinary Palestinians’ plight. [Forward]

Israel’s Ha’aretz summarizes the Obama speech: “Sometimes you need someone from the outside, someone like Obama, to tell it like it is: Israelis, you’ve got a great country, but you’ve got to stop the occupation.” [Ha'aretz]

Larry Mishel, of the Economic Policy Institute, makes the case from the left against using the chain-weighted CPI to adjust Social Security benefits for inflation, as President Obama proposes in his latest deficit-reduction plan. It’s simply a way to cut benefits, he says. If the goal is a better inflation measure, then develop one tailored to the elderly’s spending patterns. [EPI]

Brad DeLong identifies four economic lessons from the 1930s, and says European leaders are ignoring all four. [DeLong]

Peterson Institute’s Nicolas Véron says financial markets, still calm, must be assuming that a last-minute solution will be found in Cyprus to avoid a financial calamity. He cautions that “observers of the eastern Mediterranean…recall this is a region in which individuals, groups and nations do not always act in their self-interest.” [Véron]

The Washington Post’s Kevin Sullivan reports on a visa program that is growing in popularity as developers search for capital and foreigners seek access to U.S. schools and greater freedom. Immigrants invest in a U.S. project that creates at least 10 jobs—either $1 million or $500,000 depending on the project’s location and unemployment rate of the area—in exchange for green cards. The majority this year are going to Chinese investors. [Washington Post]

Sign of the Times

Cook Political Report moves the governors’ races in GOP-held Florida (Scott) and Pennsylvania (Corbett) to “toss up” from “leaning Republican.” [Cook Political Report]

The governor’s salary in Pennsylvania is higher ($183,225) than in any other state. Still, 189 state employees earn more. [The Patriot-News]

The last time Congress agreed on a budget resolution and passed all spending bills on time was 1997. [New York Times]

The price of plywood is up 45% over the past year. Supplies are tight and demand is rising, though consumption remains about half what it was during the peak of the housing boom of the mid-2000s. [WSJ]

Between 2000 and 2011, the percentage of U.S. households with credit-card debt fell from 51% to 38%. The percentage with other unsecured debt, such as medical bills or tuition, rose from 11% to 19%. [Census]

Despite predictions turnout among young voters would drop disproportionately in the 2012 election, turnout among those aged 18 to 29 years dropped by just one percentage point, while turnout among all voters dropped 2.7 percentage points between 2008 and 2012. [Campus Vote Project]

Only 400 million of the 300 billion pineapples grown each year (that’s a tiny 0.13%) come from Hawaii, which once was the big kahuna in pineapple production. [Smithsonian]

With $2.7 billion in box-office receipts, up 36% (!) from the year before, China surpassed Japan in 2012 to become the world’s second-largest movie market. Receipts in the U.S. and Canada came to $10.8 billion, up 6%. [WSJ]

The entire banking system of Cyprus combined is smaller than the 43 largest banks of the euro zone and is smaller than the eleventh largest bank in Germany. [WSJ]

Chicago officials plan to close 53 — or 11% — of the city’s schools. [WSJ]

For critical perspectives on politics and the economy from Jerry Seib & David Wessel, visit Seib & Wessel.

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.